Ecuador - July 29-30, 2011

In spite of our intense exhaustion, we were all up and out the door by 9 a.m.  We had a big day ahead of us.  Unfortunately, I was ready to throttle Erika already by this early hour because through a process of elimination, we discovered that Erika had left her passport and money on the bus the night before.  This was largely because she had taken a Benadryl the night before and had been completely out of it, so she had not been aware of her faculties or property.  Seriously, that had been the ONE thing, for sure, that had been preached to these kids - keep your passport on you at all times.  In short, she was starting my day off on the wrong foot.

For breakfast, we walked to the grocery store to buy our own.  It was a smorgasbord of every desired food, and it included a bakery!!  It smelled fantastic; I am a sucker for yeasty baked goods, so I ended up buying three rolls. . .just so I could sample them all.  Plus, the grocery store had Diet Coke!  (Yeah, I had been forced to break my soda fast while in Ecuador.  Since they served soda with most meals, I had learned to go with the flow.)  The rolls were so flaky that I made a tremendous mess while eating my pastries on the sidewalk.  I'm sure the birdies were quite happy to see me leave.

After breakfast, we were once again back to the bus (ugh) to go to the equator for a field trip. A typical tourist trap, we had to pay to get in to see the center of the earth ($2.00 for parking, and $2.00 for the entrance fee). 
Naturally, gift shops surrounded the monument; it's funny how tourist traps are the same in structure all around the world. 

Harold, Mike, and I paid the extra $3.00 to go to the top of the monument to check out the panoramic sights around the equator, so now, I can say that I've been to 0 latitude, 0 longitude. 

As we climbed down from the top, a museum about the area and the indigenous people lined the walls.  Fortunately, the descriptions were written in both English and Spanish, so we could read the descriptions.  I'd like to say that we studied every word, but we basically gave it all a cursory glance.

After having lunch at the equator ($2.00 for a hamburger, fries (papas), and a Coke), we loaded the bus at 1:30 pm, and we were off to the market to do some shopping.  The market was basically 20 rows of vendors.  Each vendor was in a stall that was about ten feet deep by about eight feet deep or so (a total guessimate).  Everything imaginable was for sale - the typical tourist-y stuff like key chains, t-shirts, etc.  Plus, there were hand-made specialities of all kinds - table runners, jackets, slippers, etc.  I got so caught up in everything that I completely forgot to take pictures of the place.

Likewise, I was so overwhelmed by all of it that I struggled with trying to decide what to buy.  It took me quite a while to get going, but once I did, negotiating with the vendors was a breeze.  We followed Sheila's bargaining advice, which was to offer them half of what they were asking and start from there. 

Mike and I shopped together, and in the end, I bought a jersey, a purse, and slippers for myself, a hat and gloves for my mom, a hat for my dad, a cigarette lighter for my brother, a hat for Melissa, a hat and soccer outfit for Wy, and slippers for Amy as well as scarves for Rhonda, Tammy, and Linda.

Mike's mom received two pairs of earrings, his dad received a coin purse, Rick got a key chain, and Granny got a momento of the equator.  I know that Mike purchased a couple of jerseys for himself as well as other items.  Nick and Erika each took care of their own purchasing, and Erika benefitted from Sheila, Haylee, and Catherine's bargaining assistance.

At 4:45 pm, we promptly left the market so that we could quickly return to the Swedish house to finish packing our luggage. We were supposed to be at the Delp's for supper at 5:00 pm, so we had to move quickly. Sadly, as I was transferring my souvenirs into my bags, the zipper on Ross and Melissa's luggage chose this particular moment to die.  Literally, the teeth separated from the zipper, so there was absolutely no fix to the suitcase, and yet, I had to somehow get the crap inside home.

Epic problem-solvers that we are, Beth, Faith, and I came up with an emergency solution.  Several balls and game supplies had been accidentally left behind in Faith's extra suitcase, so Daniel, the translator, was going to take them home with him to give to the Compassion kids.  So, we loaded up all the games and supplies in Ross and Melissa's now-non-functional suitcase for Daniel to use to transfer them while I threw all my crap in Faith's now-empty suitcase in record time.  I felt bad that Ross and Melissa's suitcase had now become an Ecuadorian citizen, but I was basically out of options.

We sped to Joel and Kim Delp's sweet apartment on the gringo side of town for Domino's Pizza and pop. . .which was cold. . .and if it wasn't cold enough, there was ice for our glasses!  Yep, we were on way back to the gringo way of life. 

After supper, we had our last team meeting in which everyone in the group discussed their impressions of the barrio.  Sadly, I had to admit that the barrio was not the highlight of my trip.  The whole camera debacle with Megan had set the pace for me, so it was hard to regain my enthusiasm.  Likewise, as a kitchen helper, I had bypassed a lot of critical kid-contact time, so I did not have the strong connections to the barrio that the others had.

After our final de-briefing, we were off to the airport to begin the departure process.  We knew the moment was coming when we would have to say goodbye to Richard, Daniel, and Julio, but none of us were prepared for it.  Morgan, Brittney, Erika, and Jess instantly fell apart as they were saying farewell to Daniel, and it took them a long time to recover.

Our journey began as we first went through Migration, then, we went through Security, and through Security again in order to wait at the gate.  It was ridiculous. We couldn't even have water.  Likewise, we were told to watch the security guards as they went through bags (by the gate) because if you're not watching, money and other valuables have a tendency to disappear.  Both Mike and Nick were searched as well.  It was much ado about nothing.

As we were boarding, Harold was pulled aside and had to go down to open his checked luggage for security to search it.  As Harold relayed the story later, we laughed because apparently, once the suitcase was opened, the security guy instantly spotted a plastic Ziploc bag and wanted to check it out.  Imagine the security guy's embarrassment and surprise when he opened ten days worth of Harold's dirty underwear.  I'm sure the contents were toxic but legal. Whew! 

We left Quito at about 11:40 pm, and the flight from Quito to Atlanta took about five hours.  I didn't sleep at all because I was stuck beween Erika and Mike during the flight.  Since they had gotten into a small altercation over yogurt early in the flight, I knew I was in for a long ride, so I gave up trying to sleep and watched  Water for Elephants.

We arrived in Atlanta at about 6 am.  TSA was a pain.  We had to navigate an impossibly-long customs line.  Then, we had to go get our bags, go through claims, check our luggage again, and go through security again since we were back in the U.S. officially as citizens.  I THINK that was the order, but I was so fuzzy that I'm not entirely sure, but I do know that the whole process took about two hours.  Then, we hopped on the tram so that we could head to the correct gate.

Since I had been planning this moment within the past couple of days, I headed first to Starbucks for a blended mocha and then to Cinnabon to acquire my breakfast foods.  With regard to food items, I hadn't missed much in Ecuador except cold drinks and oddly enough, cinnamon/caramel rolls.

Our flight to Minneapolis from Atlanta was delayed a bit (really?!) - by about twenty minutes - because the staff for our trip was arriving from another trip, so we left by about 10:15.  On this leg of the trip, I couldn't take it anymore, so I broke down and had an hour-long nap, the only hour of sleep that I had had since Friday morning. 

Once we landed, Tay-Tay took the lead since she and her dad had walked through the process before we had left for Ecuador.  We picked up our luggage, and we walked right out the correct door to Dale and the FCC bus that was parked in the lot and waiting for us.  Fortunately for them, Deb, Beth, and Mike Buer were chauffered home by their waiting spouses, and Dan and Faith were picked up by relatives.  The rest of us boarded the bus, each sprawling out on a seat, and proceeded to float in and out of various states of conciousness.

As a group, we vetoed the idea of stopping for lunch; we just wanted to get home.  We did, however, make one stop in Delano so that we could get liquids and any snacks we required before we headed home.

After dropping off Sheila at her house near Kandiyohi, we pulled into the FCC parking lot and were once again, for the final time, greeted like rock stars upon arrival. After hugs all around, we grabbed our luggage and headed for home to attempt to get used to life in Minnesota again.